Mauritius or One day in port equals total disaster.

Mauritius is a beautiful island off the coast of Africa, about the same size of RI.  We were in port for 8-9 hours. Having that been said, most of the student population booked Catamaran Cruises.  Off we went on this awesome boat with 30 students with unlimited drinks and food. - probably not the best idea.  Any who, all 6 Catamarans met up in a body of water and it felt like Spring Break.  Students swimming, drinking, eating, taking pictures, jumping, everything you could imagine happened.  Of course you can't leave out those who were intoxicated by 11am.   After partying it up, we started to make our way back to the ship so that we would all make it back before on-ship time.  Back on the gangway, the scene was disastrous.  Picture over 200 college intoxicated students trying to board the ship.  Not only was that a scene in itself, but we had a very SERIOUS incident in which a student had to be quickly transported to a hospital.  To this day we know very minimal about his recovery but from what we were informed, he was suppose to be a "goner."  Due to immediate response, he regained consciousness the next morning.  The student had to stay in Mauritius and we are unaware if he will be allowed to resume the voyage.  If they are, they will meet us in India. 

March 2nd 2011

Early this morning we were woken up by "the voice" & the captain over the intercom.  We were informed that the ship had been going at full speed for the past 2 days due to some medical issues that needed to be assessed rather quickly.  The MV Explorer was granted permission to enter the island/lagoon of Diego Garcia ( a US and British military base).  Here, two female passengers and a crew member would disembark and be airlifted to Singapore for medical assistance that could not be addressed on the ship.  The morning was quiet hectic with passengers looking overboard to figure out what was going on and to check out the scene.  There was armed military on board to scope out the situation.  Although it was sad to see these people go, it was an interesting, exciting, and nerve racking morning for the MV Explorer.